Orange County mayoral election could move to presidential elections years

Changes could be coming to the way the Orange County mayor is elected.

The Orange County Commission voted 6 to 1 in favor of a referendum proposing to move countywide elections to presidential elections years and change the mayor's time in office on Tuesday.

The resolution will be placed on the ballot and will be up for vote in November.

Under the amendment, Mayor Teresa Jacobs would run for a new four year term if she wins re-election this year; this would mean 10 total years in office of for Jacobs.

The referendum was approved by Jacobs, who does not currently have an opponent in the mayoral race, and five other commissioners. Ted Edwards was the only commissioner who voted against the proposal.

“Anything that we do to alter the language, I think, would be suspect and undermine the public's confidence in us and I think that the public's confidence in us is a much more valuable thing for us to protect than the risk that the public may be misled by this [amendment]," said Jacobs.

LIST: Florida among America's most corrupt states

LIST: Florida among America's most corrupt states

A new studyfrom researchers at the University of Hong Kong and the Indiana University estimates that corruption is costing Americans in the 10 most corrupt states an average of $1,308 per year, or 5.2 percent of those states’ average expenditures per year. Researchers studied more than 25,000 convictions of public officials for violation of federal corruption laws between 1976 and 2008 as well as patterns in state spending. Take a look at the 10 worst states for corruption:

10. Florida

9. Kentucky

8. South Dakota

7. Alaska

6. Alabama

5. Pennsylvania

4. Illinois

3. Tennessee

2. Louisiana

1. Mississippi

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